We were each given a key word by our tutor and with this, we had to create a mood board based on this word and also show the thinking behind the research. The word I was given was 'Obscene' and when I found out that this was my word, I wasn't 100% sure the exact meaning behind this so I did a little research to give myself a better idea.
When I first researched my key word, I was given a list of meanings which included some like 'pornographic', 'offensive' and 'immodest'. This word can be used to describe someone who is acting sexual in an indecent way but as I researched into this more, I realised that this is not the only meaning behind this word and there are intact several meanings to it. Every single person has their own idea of their standards of beauty, we all look at things differently and one person may find something beautiful and another person may not so you could use the word 'obscene' to express this, for example if someone has bright coloured hair you could say their hair was an 'obscene hairdo' and it's 'not normal' or if a person has a unique dress sense then you could call that obscene too.
Personally, I believe that this word means taking things to the extreme whether that be hair, clothing, makeup or nudity and it could mean good or bad depending on the context and the person's standards of beauty.
I came up with a small mind map with a few words and ideas of what I thought the word meant to me. The map was quite mixed and included a few positive and some negative words which I think does work because that's what the beauty industry is - negative and positive, you will never be able to please everybody you meet and for every 10 people who think positively of you, there may be one who will think negatively of you but if that's your standard of beauty and you're happy then go ahead and be obscene.
I decided to split my research into two parts; the first one being about nudity and how that is seen as being outrageous and offensive to some and the second part being about bold hair, makeup and clothing and how this could also be quite extreme to some people and can either be seen as a good or a bad thing.
In the beauty industry, you are very likely to come across words such as 'gross', 'shocking' and 'dreadful' especially when you are working with celebrities as there are images of them all over magazines every single day with a boob hanging out or a nipple on show or them just acting in a way that some people may find rude or unacceptable but there are also people out there who choose to be obscene such as models who purposely pose naked for photoshoots and magazines but things have changed so much in the past few decades. When you think back to the Victorian Era, a woman's body was never spoken about and if anyone dared to even mention a lady's leg, it was very much frowned upon and women were thought quite little of and compared to animals that chicken thighs were called dark meat and no one would ever ask for a chicken breast so it is only in the past few decades that woman have been allowed to become more obscene and show off their bodies but I don't think this is a bad thing as we have seen men for many years being able to show off their bodies, this word is simply something made up in our society to try and make people be offended by our own human anatomy.
I found a short article online from New York Times magazine from a professor named John McWhorter which said "Why do educated people use bad words? The definition of profanity is constantly revising and evolving based on what a culture is offended by, and because of the recent epidemic of sexual exploitation, there is no more controversy or shock toward it. It has become so natural that such words can be comfortably used by educated people. Permission to use profanity comes from culture, because culture defines what profanity is."
The second part of my word is exactly the same but about people's appearances. Over the past 20 years or so, coloured hair, piercings and tattoos have become more popular and 'normal' but there is still a divide in society between these people who are deemed 'normal' and people who experiment and express themselves with the way that they look. To some people, they might like the bold hair and expressive outfits but to others they might look down on these people and see them as being too extreme or may even find it offensive. I think both of these fit in well for the word 'Obscene' even though they both have completely different meanings but they can relate in a way.
https://uk.pinterest.com/philippamcgee/obscene/
I created my mood board and found images that I thought related to my key word. I found it quite difficult at first to find images that I thought fitted this word but after a while I got the hang of it and was really focused. I collected a variety of images, some were similar and others were completely different and I managed to incorporate the two meanings of the word that I had previously spoken about.
Colour was a big part of my mood board as when putting together images for my word, bright and bold imagery stood out to me the most when I pictured a collage. I found several images of weird and bold outfits from catwalks, I also found some very strong makeup looks to add to it as well as some other random photos that I thought fitted in with the theme.
I really like very strong and emphasised colours and makeup looks but I also like plain, black and white looks too so I thought this was important to have a bit of both in my mood board. From doing this research, I have found quite a few ideas that I would love to try out and experiment with to create my own looks.
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/IN-MY-OWN-WRITE-Whats-deemed-obscene-411132
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